The Cost Assessment Working Group was formed in 2014 with the goal to collect, aggregate, and make freely available a large set of data on the time it takes to perform various tasks involved in the digitization process, in order to assist organizations in digitization project planning and benchmarking. When the group formed, we found few practical resources geared towards helping the community determine the cost of digitization. To help address this gap, we built a Digitization Cost Calculator [http://dashboard.diglib.org/ Digitization Cost Calculator] that allows individuals to enter information about a project and get back an estimate of the staffing costs and time needed to complete it based on real data from the community.

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The Cost Assessment working group's tasks are to aggregate and make freely available a large set of data on the time it takes to perform various tasks involved in the digitization process, in order to assist organizations in digitization project planning and benchmarking. To that end, we are building a [http://dashboard.diglib.org/ Digitization Cost Calculator] that takes advantage of the contributed data set to provide digitization cost estimates based on various input parameters. Founded in 2014, the Cost Assessment working group of the DLF Assessment Interest Group was tasked with drafting [https://docs.google.com/document/d/17jTJmCzKsa83BMdlgKj239Shqcbglq7I4EfxJIWWDQo/edit best practices and guidelines for the collection of time data for various digitization processes], which are now in use, with the goal of standardizing collection of such data in the field as well as to guide data submissions to the Digitization Cost Calculator.

''Digitization Cost Calculator -- current status'': The data definitions authored by the cost assessment working group have now informed a modified structure of the calculator with expanded capabilities that we are completing in 2016 with the assistance of Wayne Graham, Technical Director at CLIR and DLF. We gathered 85 data submissions in summer of 2016 with a Day of Data campaign, spent the fall reviewing and normalizing submissions, and are now close to having a new version of the calculator complete. [https://dashboard.diglib.org/ The new Digitization Cost Calculator will be available here] on November 7th 2016.

''Digitization Cost Calculator -- current status'': The data definitions authored by the cost assessment working group have now informed a modified structure of the calculator with expanded capabilities that we are completing in 2016 with the assistance of Wayne Graham, Technical Director at CLIR and DLF. We gathered 85 data submissions in summer of 2016 with a Day of Data campaign, spent the fall reviewing and normalizing submissions, and are now close to having a new version of the calculator complete. [https://dashboard.diglib.org/ The new Digitization Cost Calculator will be available here] on November 7th 2016.

DLF Cost Assessment Working Group

The Cost Assessment Working Group was formed in 2014 with the goal to collect, aggregate, and make freely available a large set of data on the time it takes to perform various tasks involved in the digitization process, in order to assist organizations in digitization project planning and benchmarking. When the group formed, we found few practical resources geared towards helping the community determine the cost of digitization. To help address this gap, we built a Digitization Cost Calculator Digitization Cost Calculator that allows individuals to enter information about a project and get back an estimate of the staffing costs and time needed to complete it based on real data from the community.

Current Projects

Digitization Cost Calculator and associated data set

Digitization Cost Calculator -- current status: The data definitions authored by the cost assessment working group have now informed a modified structure of the calculator with expanded capabilities that we are completing in 2016 with the assistance of Wayne Graham, Technical Director at CLIR and DLF. We gathered 85 data submissions in summer of 2016 with a Day of Data campaign, spent the fall reviewing and normalizing submissions, and are now close to having a new version of the calculator complete. The new Digitization Cost Calculator will be available here on November 7th 2016.

Digitization Cost Calculator -- what's been completed: In 2014 the Cost Assessment working group developed a beta version of a Library Digitization Cost Calculator to assist organizations in estimating the costs for digitizing collections and initiate a conversation at the 2014 DLF Forum around cost assessment in digital libraries. The original Digitization Cost Calculator was built as a proof of concept and contains data from only a handful of institutions. In spring of 2014, the Cost Assessment working group of the DLF Assessment Interest Group was subsequently founded. This group was tasked with drafting best practices and guidelines for the collection of time data for various digitization processes, which are used to standardize collection of such data in the field as well as to guide data submissions to the Digital Cost Calculator. The guidelines and definitions are organized according to some of the typical stages of a library project.

In 2016, the group solicited enough data contributions to build a functional digitization cost calculator 2.0. We needed at least one set of data in each of the 20 categories, as well as for each type of image capture device and for each level of metadata creation and quality control. In order to further this goal, we held a Day of Data campaign. We currently have the minimum necessary; the calculator will be vastly improved if we have more! Help us by submitting data here.

Publication Information

Get Involved

The Cost Assessment working group welcomes new members. Ongoing member duties include quarterly review of recent Cost Calculator data submissions. Those who would like to work on new projects or expansions of existing projects are welcome. If you are interested in helping us collect data for the Digitization Cost Calculator, please join our
Digital Library Assessment Google Group and speak up!